Under the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s Military Manual (1988), “it is prohibited to pillage enemy property under any circumstances”. The manual considers any unlawful appropriation of private property as pillage.

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s Criminal Offences against the Nation and State Act (1945) considers that, during war or enemy occupation, “any person who … ordered or committed … the looting of private or public property” committed a war crime.

The commentary on the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s Penal Code (1976), as amended in 2001, states that the act of unlawfully seizing belongings from the killed or the wounded in a theatre of war “can be committed … by any … person”.